About the Book

The continuous withdrawal of mental health funding has turned jails and prisons across the nation into the default mental health facilities.

The system designed for security is now trapped with treating mental illness and the mentally ill are often trapped inside the system with nowhere else to go.

Documentary photographer Jenn Ackerman takes you inside the Correctional Psychiatric Treatment Unit of the Kentucky State Reformatory to see how a state is meeting the needs of this growing population.

About the Author

Jenn Ackerman studied photography at The Danish School of Journalism and in 2008 completed her master’s degree in photography at Ohio University.
Her photographs has been recognized by the Inge Morath Award, Magnum Expression Award, CENTER Project Competition, Photojournalism Competition on Human Rights, Emerging Photographer Fund, the PGB Photo Award, the Honickman First Book Prize and others. In 2008, Ackerman was named Student Photographer of the Year by the Southern Short Course and 2009 she was published in the Communication Arts Photography Annual and named to Photolucida’s 2009 Critical Mass Top 50. Her multimedia and video have been widely recognized including an honorable mention for a Webby and a Telly and two of her short films have been screened at film festivals around the country. Her most recent project, Trapped, was named Non-Traditional Photojournalism Publishing Project of the Year and the project’s short film won an Emmy.